1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mask data design environment of a semiconductor device manufacturing technology, and more particularly to a mask manufacturing system, a mask data creating method and a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A degree of integration of a semiconductor integrated circuit is increasing from year to year, and miniaturization of design rules is also advancing. With advancement of miniaturization, an optical proximity effect (OPE) that a layout pattern is not accurately transferred onto a wafer has become a problem. Therefore, there has been proposed an optical proximity effect correction (OPC) technique, a Levenson type phase shift mask (PSM) or the like to overcome the OPE. In the OPC technique, small patterns or the like which are not resolved when they are projected on a wafer are arranged on a mask to prevent shrink of an end portion of an isolated pattern. The Levenson type PSM is a mask which sharpens a light intensity profile in an imaging optical system to improve a resolution. A technology which deals with the OPE, such as an OPC technique, is referred to as a resolution enhancement technology (RET).
With introduction of the resolution enhancement technology, a mask pattern which is drawn on a mask has become greatly different from original layout pattern of a semiconductor integrated circuit. Therefore, it becomes difficult to extract a processing error at the time of creating a mask data for the mask pattern by simply comparing the mask pattern with the layout pattern by an operator. Thus, in recent years, a design rule checker or the like is used to automatically verify manufacturability or the like of the mask pattern (see, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-303742). However, with an introduction of the resolution enhancement technology, complication of the mask pattern has advanced, and a load on a computer required for data processing to create a mask pattern from a layout pattern has been increased. Therefore, there has arisen a problem of an increase in a cost required for maintenance of a photomask developing environment or prolonged photomask developing period.